As the story has it, one day I headed to the opposite side of the globe – the Flipside. I arrived in Asia February 16th, 2005 and thought I’d do a year, then leave. Years later and I’m still here. I went from being some random foreign girl to taking on labels I never imagined – university professor, film extra, professional boxer, reality TV star, CEO of my own girls-only fitness company (Flipside Fitness), CEO of my own boxing club (Hulk's Club, formerly known as Hulk's Boxing), and now I'm launching my 3rd business -- Empowered Clubhouse.

After 11.5yrs in Korea, I then picked up one day and left. I returned to Toronto, Canada with Flipside Fitness on my brain, Hulk's in my heart, boxing in my bag, and my four-legged friend Balboa Button by my side. But then I left again. This time it was for the Philippines. That's where I'm at now, living in the land of the happy people.

The struggles are real and the struggles are many but I'm living life on my terms, I'm calling the shots, and I'm doing what I love.

Life is an amazing adventure and this is my story of yesterday.

Monday, June 19, 2017

This Monday's Motivation

In 2011 I launched my first business, Flipside Fitness, and I launched it in Cheonan, South Korea.

I no longer had to worry about fitting in, instead I had become a leader and my pack were fellow fitness-minded females. I trained them and then hosted various health-related activities for them.

One of the things I loves about Flipside was my ability to now fully enjoy the holidays,

especially the many that Korea really doesn't give much recognition to.

Bi-weekly I hosted a Shopping for Abs event by which I'd load up my van with my crew and take them out of the downtown core to a massive fresh fruit and veggies market that I had made a deal with. The market is moreso a kind of middle man for the trucks and smaller markets around town but I had worked my magic with them and gained entrance. How could they resist the notion of me bringing in a van of fabulous foreign females?! Exactly.

Fitness, sports and health, that's what the group focused on so trips to sporting events was a given.

Here are some of us at a baseball game where we came loud and proud with our prepared signs.

And here's us at a live horse racing event.

Boxing and personal training was the main physical training I coached them in but then I took it a step further and launched "ROBO Time" (Running Our Butts Off Time). It was a running group that focused on newbies to the wonderful world of running and it was inspired by a particular member who was quite the notoriously fierce competitive runner. We had gone to see her run and then we launched a running group so that others could join her in the various running competitions.

Christmas with Flipside Fitness was pretty awesome. I had hosted a sleepover Christmas party at my apartment so I got to wake up and make them all Christmas morning breakfast before we enjoyed a Secret Santa gift event.

Flipside Fitness started off with me renting out the local boxing club, UP Boxing. I had been training there for years and on the weekends it was closed so I hosted my boxercise classes on Saturdays and Sundays. It was quick to evolve into something so much more than I anticipated though with it being sponsored by Adidas and me taking it to the next step -- opening up a training facility.

Hulk's Boxing was then created but with a male business partner and many of the men in the community wanting to join it, we then decided it'd be open to both women and men. Flipside Fitness was then put on the shelf. I took it off the shelf though when I moved to Canada.

Flipside Fitness was the medium I used to reach others and make a difference but I don't know who was more affected, those involved or me. It definitely opened me up to a whole new world and now I'm wanting to go back, back to the beginning when it was just my girls and me.